Namikaze and Uzumaki: Brothers of Destiny
by Hedgehog of Time
Summary: Link is the heir of the Namikaze Clan, and exceptional child. Naruto is the heir of the Uzumaki Clan, and the adopted child of Kakashi Hatake. United by an unseen bond, these two have a destiny before them, a destiny which will change the Shinobi, and rock the World to it's very core. Naruhina, one-sided LinkxHinata, eventual LinkxOC.


Chapter 1: The Brothers

Hiruzen Sarutobi sat behind his desk wearing the Cloak and Hat he had hoped to never put on again. Here he sat, bearing the Mantle of Hokage once more, and in the wake of such horrible tragedy.

Mere hours ago, the Kyuubi no Kitsune had broken free of its restraints in Kushina Uzumaki and had proceeded to rampage, leveling half of the Village. It had only been through the heroic actions of Minato Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage, that the Village had not been completely destroyed by the monstrous demon.

There had been horrible losses that night; so many had died, both Shinobi and civilian, but no loss carried greater weight than that of Minato and Kushina. Hiruzen knew what few other people knew, that Kushina nad Minato had married, and Kushina had become pregnant. Not even Kakashi, Minato's last living student, knew of this. When Hiruzen's wife, Biwako, had heard that Kushina was giving birth she had insisted on helping with the procedure, as it was a secret due to Minato's many political enemies.

She and the other two Medic-Nins had been killed, presumably by the Kyuubi.

Hiruzen fought back the wave of grief that threatened to consume him. _'You cannot grieve Hiruzen, not yet. You must think clearly now and grieve later, when you are free to do so.'_ he thought to himself.

Hiruzen looked down into the makeshift crib which he had brought to his office. Two pairs of blue eyes stared up at him from the crib. One set belonged to a boy who name, Hiruzen knew, was Naruto. Naruto was a big baby, mere hours after birth and he already sported spiky blonde hair. Naruto was crying, loudly, but Hiruzen couldn't exactly blame him. Minato, after all, had sealed the Kyuubi within the child. Hiruzen shook his head and stroked the crying child's face, lamenting that this little boy was an orphan at only ten hours old.

The second child was different, Hiruzen could already tell. Kushina had given birth that night, not only to Naruto, but also to Link, his twin brother. The child was smaller than Naruto and, like his twin brother, had inherited their father's blonde hair and blue eyes. But while Naruto wailed his displeasure to the world, Link merely stared, his blue eyes piercing. It seemed that even now, as a baby, Link seemed to be gathering information and committing things to memory. Already those small blue eyes held a strange sort of intelligence in them, like Minato's had held.

"Hokage-sama." said a voice behind Hiruzen, shaking the old Hokage out of his thoughts. The Sandaime turned to see a Crane masked ANBU standing in front of him.

"I'm sorry, what my friend?" asked Hiruzen to Crane.

"The Councils have convened sir, they await your presence to begin." said the ANBU respectfully.

Hiruzen groaned and ran a hand over his face. The Council meeting, a migraine headache on good days, causes of suicide on bad ones. Now he had to explain the situation to them and attempt to find a solution to the problem.

"Of course, I'll be going now Crane-san." he glanced back at the two boys in the crib and then looked back at Crane, a pleading look on his face. "Crane-san, I would like you to look after these two boys while I am gone, would you do that?"

Crane cocked her head to one side. "I thought you could simply order me to?" asked Crane.

Hiruzen mentally slapped himself. _'Get a grip old man!'_ he berated himself. _'You are the Hokage again, not just the Head of the Sarutobi clan.'_ Hiruzen straightened slightly, doing his best to look official. "Yes, what I meant to say was this. Crane, I order you to stay here and make sure no harm come to either of these infants."

Crane took off her mask revealing a green-eyed, mousy-haired woman. She smiled and said, "Hokage-sama, it would be my unique pleasure."

Hiruzen smiled and walked forward to shake Crane's hand. "Thank you Ping, you are reliable as always." said the old Hokage. Ping had been the a member of Hiashi Hyuuga's Genin team, so Hiruzen of course knew the student of one of Jiraiya's students. He and Ping had known each other for many years and the two had developed a close friendship despite the obvious age gap.

Ping smiled. "Aw shove off old man, you know I'm always happy to help out the old and useless." she said in a playful tone. Ping walked over to the cradle and peered in. "May I ask their names Hokage-sama?" inquired the girl without turning around.

Hiruzen nodded. "Oh yes. The crying one is Naruto and the smaller one is Link."

Ping nodded to herself. "Good luck Hokage-sama!" Crane called over to the reluctant leader.

_'Kami knows that luck is something I'm going to need.'_ Hiruzen mentally sighed as he left the office and headed for the meeting chamber. However, he stopped to look back at Ping, who had somehow managed to get Naruto to stop crying. _'One day,'_ thought Hiruzen wistfully as he looked back at his surogate granddaughter. _'One day that girl is going to make a lucky man very happy. and then, well, she seems to be good with kids already.'_ he though with no small measure of warmth for the girl.

* * *

><p>Hiruzen sat down at his seat beside his advisors Koharu and Homura. Before him were the Civilian and Shinobi Councils the legislative body of Konoha. The council was the ones who made the laws, but the Hokage had the power of veto. The civilans were eleven elected officials from the Civilian Quarter, usually buisnessmen or artisans, who served a term of four years before leaving the position, not to say they couldn't run again. The Shinobi Council was made up of the Clan heads of the major Clans in Konoha, the Sarutobi, the Uchiha, the Senju, the Nara, the Akimachi, the Yamanaka, the Abrume, the Inuzaka, the Hyuuga, the Namikaze, and the Uzumaki. The Shinobi council members kept their positions for their entire lives, passing down the position to the next Clan Head.<p>

Both sides of the Council were responsible for adressing the concerns of the people over whom they had jurusdiction. The matter was then passed on to the Hokage who passed action on it, hence the dreaded amounts of paperwork. Both sides did their jobs to the best of their abilities, knowing that if they didn't the Village would crumble. However, political bones did tend to show up every once in a while, and what was following was certain to be one of the worst.

Hiruzen cleared his throat and addressed the Councils. "Ladies and gentlemen of the honored Shinobi and Civilian Councils. I come here today as the bearer of sad news. The Yondaime Hokage has passed away." both councils took this in silence, news had already spread like wildfire through the Village. "However, in the wake of the tragedy we must address an important issue. The sons of the Yondaime."

With that the chamber exploded into noise. Shouts of denial, surprise, and anger ran through the chamber as the various council members voiced their opinions.

Hiruzen finally achieved order in the chamber after a good five minutes of yelling and addressed the chamber once more, trying to ignore the developing headache. "Yes, the honored Yondaime did indeed marry one Kushina Uzumaki, Head of clan Uzumaki, and yes she did indeed give birth to twins in secret."

"But Hokage-sama, why keep it a secret?" asked Tsume Inuzaka.

"Due to both Minato and Kushina's political enemies they chose to keep their marriage and pregnancy a secret from all but me and Jiraiya of the Sannin." said the Hokage. "But yes, this very night Kushina gave birth to twin boys."

"I'm not sure what the problem is Hokage-sama." said Shibi Abrume. "Anyone here would be more than willing to take in both of those boys."

_'Now onto the hard part.'_ thought Hiruzen with a sigh. "The situation is more complex than that." said Hiruzen. "You see, to save the Village, Minato Namikaze sealed the Kyuubi no Kitsune into one of his sons, Naruto." Hiruzen closed his eyes and braced himself. _'Three, two one...'_ he thought.

The chamber erupted into ear-splitting shouting, yells of terror, outrage, and horror were rife through the chamber. This time it took Hiruzen a full _ten_ minutes to calm the pack of them down. Already his headache was worsening.

"As I said, Minato made his son into a Jinchuuriki." said Hiruzen through clenched teeth.

"We- we must kill it!" cried one of the Civilian Council members. "We must destroy the demon!"

Hiruzen felt a surge of anger and prepared to put the civilian in his place but, much to his surprise, Fugaku Uchiha beat him to it. "Are you really so foolish as to not know the difference between a kunai and it's sheath you chicken-hearted blob." sneered the Uchiha. "To kill the demon you'd have to kill the kid to. And I don't think anyone here is a kid killer." spat the proud warrior, releasing a small amount of Killer Intent for good measure.

The councilman looked sufficiently cowed under Fugaku's merciless gave and quickly clammed up. Hiruzen narrowed his eyes at the Uchiha. He knew first hand that Fugaku was a powerful and dangerous man, but he was surprised to see him jump the Naruto's defense so quickly. He made a note to ask about it later.

"That aside, there is still the matter of the other twin to deal with." said Hiruzen. "What is to become of them."

There was a long silence, finally broken by Mebuki Haruno, an influential Councilwoman. "I think we can agree that we cannot allow the Kyuubi container to be beholden to one single clan, Civilian or Shinobi." Murrmers of agreement filled the chamber.

"Nor can we allow the other child of the Yondaime to be severly influenced by any one clan, Civilian or Shinobi." said Inoichi Yamanaka. More murrmers of agreement.

Hiruzen nodded. "I agree with both these statements." said the old man. "That being said, I am prepared with a solution." With that he signaled for one of his ANBU guards, a Lion masked one, to come forward. "Lion, go and bring Kakashi Hatake and Ping Ryuzaki here. Also, please replace Ping Ryuzaki in looking after the children in my office." said Hiruzen.

"Hai, Hokage-sama." said Lion giving a polite bow, quickly shushinning away.

A few minutes later Ping entered the room, Kakashi close behind her. Ping looked no worse than the last time Hiruzen had seen her, just a little fatigued from taking care of Link and Naruto.

Kakashi however, was a wreck. His hair was a bigger mess than usual, his clothes were ripped and mussed, and his single visible eye was bloodshot from tears. But what was worse was the look in that eye, the empty and dead look that Hiruzen had seen in far too many Shinobi, the look he had seen in Sakumo's eyes a few days before he took his own life.

Despair.

"Hakage-sama, what's up? I thought I was supposed to play babysitter?" asked Ping crossing her arms.

Hiruzen cleared his throat and spoke. "Ping Ryuzaki, your service in Konoha over your thirteen years of service in the Shinobi Corps has been exemplary to say the least. Furthermore you are a personal friend and confidant of mine." said Hiruzen.

Ping looked taken aback. "Th- thank you Hokage-sama." said Ping in a hesitant voice.

Hiruzen turned to the disheveled Kakashi. "Kakashi Hatake-"

"Can the speeches old man, what do you want." said Kakashi bitterly. The ANBU guards in the room looked at Hiruzen for permission to punish Kakashi for his rude speech but Hiruzen waved them down. After all, Kakashi had lost the last two people he cared about that night. He figured the ANBU warrior needed a pass.

"The situation is thus." said Hiruzen to the two ANBU. In the elapsing five minutes Hiruzen explained the situation to the two Shinobi. The change that came over Kakashi was incredible. The despair in his eye flooded away and it was replaced with a sinning. A shine that Hiruzen immediately recognized.

Hope.

"Hokage-sama, is this true!" he cried. "Two sons, children?!"

Hiruzen nodded. "Yes Kakashi, two boys, twins."

Ping spoke up. "Well that's all fine and dandy, but what do you need us for?" asked the mousy haired girl.

Hiruzen clasped his hands together, now addressing both the two Shinobi and the Councils. "It is my belief that it would be wisest to give one of each of the boys to Kakashi and Ping." Hiruzen raised his hand for silence before the shouting could begin, determined not to let his headache become even worse. "If you would allow me to continue, Ping and Kakashi are both stellar ninja who belong to no major clan Shinobi or otherwise. Both are willing to raise them, and both are strong enough to help both of Minato's son's maximize their potential as Shinobi."

"But Hokage-sama, Kakashi-san is only seventeen! Surely you can't seriously be thinking of allowing a minor to keep the Kyuubi demon in check!" cried out Koharu.

"Kakashi-san is one of the most powerful Shinobi in the village, and he is legally an adult by Shinobi law which he falls under." said Hiruzen sternly. "I, as both Clan Head of Clan Sarutobi and as the Sandaime Hokage vouch for both of their characters." declared the Hokage.

Silence reigned in the room for a long moment, broken finally by Chouza saying, "If we go through with this plan of your Hokage-sama, who will receive which?"

"Ping will receive Link and be formally adopted into Clan Namikaze as Link's caretaker." said Hiruzen. "Kakashi will be given Naruto and be officially adopted into Clan Uzumaki as Naruto's caretaker." Hiruzen looked at the two ANBU before him. "Tell me, are you two willing to accept your tasks?" asked the old Hokage to the two young Shinobi.

Kakashi stepped forward first, his head raised proudly. "Hokage-sama, I would be honored to be the one to raise my Sensei's legacy."

Ping looked nervous as she stepped forward. "Umm, ditto." she said with a shrug.

"Call for vote on this measure." said Hiruzen. There was a silent agreement, each standing as they cast their votes.

"I, Inoichi Yamanaka, vote in favor of this plan."

"I, Shibi Abrume, vote infavor of this plan."

"I, Chouza Akimachi, vote in favor of this plan."

"I, Shikaku Nara, vote in favor of this plan, no matter how troublesome it may be."

"I, Fugaku Uchiha, vote in favor of this plan."

"I, Hiashi Hyuuga, vote infavor of this plan."

"I, Mai Sarutobi, vote in favor of this plan."

"I, Tsume Inuzaka, vote in favor of this plan."

The votes on the Civilain side progressed with most, save for Mebuki and two others, voting against the plan. In the end, there was am 11 - 8 majority in favor of the plan. Hiruzen then sealed the deal by exercising his right has Hokage to vote twice giving the plan a 13 - 8 majority.

"The vote has been witnessed, the motion passes." said Homura. "So let it be recorded and established that Ping Ryuzaki is officially adopted into the Namikaze Clan as Link Namikaze's caretaker and acting Clan Head until such time as Link Namikaze comes of age. So let it be recorded and established that Kakashi Hatake is officially adopted into the Uzumaki Clan as Naruto Uzumaki's caretaker and acting Clan Head until such time as Naruto Uzumaki comes of age."

"So it is witnessed." intoned both Councils at the same time.

"Before we move on from this topic," intoned Hiruzen, "there is one more issue we must discuss." attention returned to the old Hokage. "Link Namikaze and Naruto Uzumaki are not to know that they are brothers, it would undoubtedly cause contention within the Village. Furthermore, the fact that Naruto Uzumaki is the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki is one that shall be confined to this room and the people in it, is this understood." said Hiruzen, a cold look in his eyes. "To ensure this, both pieces of knowledge are from now on to be regarded as a SS - Class secret, to be revealed under pain of death or by my express permission." said Hiruzen.

No one in the room objected, for the word of the Hokage is law.

* * *

><p>Ping Ryuzaki came from a Civilian family, and yet she was one of the greatest ninja in the Village. Strong and fiercely loyal to the Office of Hokage, there were few things that caused her fear.<p>

Now, as she stood outside of the Namikaze manor, a baby in her arms, that it hit her. Through some cruel, sadistic, ironic twist of fate she, an orphan and a social outcast, found herself a mother to a baby that wasn't even hers.

The moment this information sunk in, the panic finally hit. _'JESUS MOTHERFUCKING CHRIST ALMIGHTY!'_ she mentally screamed, rooted to the spot in front os the Namikaze Manor in shock. _'What the actual fuck am I doing!? I'm not a mom! I can't take care of a kid! I can barely take care of myself! I need to talk to the Hokage and get him to get me out of this!'_

She looked down at baby Link who was wide awake, staring at her with imploring blue eyes. "Don't you look at me like that you little brat." she snapped at him. The baby cocked his head to one side releasing a small whimper like sound. "Okay, that's cheating." she grumbled as she carried Link in.

Ping took a moment to admire the beautiful Namikaze Manor. The Namikaze Clan were descendants of a race of people known as Germans, and the style of the building was largely influenced by their western culture.

Ping knew that she was now an executor of one of the greatest fortunes in Konoha. She shook her head and walked towards the kitchen, she wasn't quite ready to deal with THAT little piece of information.

She looked down at the child again. "I guess that you're hungry." It was probably just a figment of Ping's exhausted imagination, but little Link seemed to nod a little. Ping decided to roll with it. "Okay, one bottle of baby formula coming up." she said pushing open the door of the kitchen.

Ping immediately realized that getting young Link a bottle of formula was going to be harder than anticipated. The kitchen was huge, the size of a five-star restraunt kitchen. Ping glanced down at the boy. "Wow, ten hours old and you're already more trouble than your worth." Link gurgled happily.

After a few hours of rummaging, a couple of close calls with knives, one or two explosions, and one very traumatized squirrel, Ping finally managed to fix Link a bottle of formula.

"Here you evil little bastard." said a very ruffled looking Ping. "I hope you choke on it." she growled, slamming the bottle down in front of Link who had been napping in his high chair, sleeping peacefully through the ruckus. Link made several baby sounds that conveyed joy as he grabbed the bottle. Ping frowned, surprised that Link had caught onto the purpose of the bottle so quickly. "Smart little bastard aren't you?" commented Ping.

As she watched the undeniably cute baby guzzle down the milk Ping felt a smile come over her face. Sure this was a lot of work and she was only a couple hours into the job, but she felt _right_ doing this. Like she had been born to be a mother.

"You aren't so bad are you, ya little bugger." she said tickling the boy under his chin. That's when it hit her.

The smell, the unmistakeable and ungodly odor of a soiled diaper. "You little evil shit." she spat. Link giggled a little bit.

* * *

><p>An hour later, Ping emerged from the bathroom with Link in hand, a freshly changed diaper adorning his bottom. "Well, that was a living nightmare. I hope you die and burn in Hell forever." she said to the little boy.<p>

Link yawned and nuzzled up to Ping. Ping, a closet softie, sighed and cuddled the baby as she carried him to his nursery.

Ping's heart hurt when she saw the nursery. It was clear how much love and care had gone into the place. _'Kushina, Minato, I'm so sorry you were cheated out of becoming parents'_ thought the young woman. She carried Link over to his crib and gently laid the boy into it. "Night night stick-bug." she said, tucking the baby in and kissing him on the forehead. "Don't let the bedbugs paralyze."

Link was already sleeping, and Ping felt ready to follow his example. She turned to leave and smiled back at the baby behind her. Maybe, just maybe, she could do this after all.


End file.
